


but is bad luck really such a crime?

by bodysharing (salvainterra)



Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drug Use, Friendship, Gen, Rin Best Boy, The Okumura Twins Become Mercenaries, minor OCs - Freeform, more to come - Freeform, rin has demon friends who teach him cool demon things
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-07-14 15:14:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16043057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/salvainterra/pseuds/bodysharing
Summary: Ryuji felt out of his depth. When the offer to join a high-ranked mission for field experience had come in, he hadn’t thought twice before jumping on the opportunity. He should’ve known that it was too good to be true. What was supposed to be a simple guard shift around a sealed demon had turned into a life-or-death fight.





	1. Invitation

Ryuji felt out of his depth.

When the offer to join a high-ranked mission for field experience had come in, he hadn’t thought twice before jumping on the opportunity. He should’ve known that it was too good to be true. What was supposed to be a simple guard shift around a sealed demon had turned into a life-or-death fight.   
  
He ducked behind a stack of crates as an absolutely gleeful laugh tore through the dark warehouse, amidst the shifting of weight and thud of blocked blows. The humanoid demon they were fighting was handling itself just fine against the three fully-fledged senior exorcists that were leading the mission. That was, in itself, terrifying.  

It had shifted the fight up to the rafters after a glancing blow from Aoki almost made it lose its grip on the seal-plastered jar it had stolen. The building was surprisingly quiet considering the free-for-all going on. Ryuji’s heavy breathing seemed to drown out the soft taps of footsteps and the muffled pops of Arata’s silencer.

He was utterly useless, crouching behind a pillar as the fight was taken out of his reach. His skill with firearms wasn’t enough that he could try to hit the demon without risking Aoki, who was fighting in close quarters with the demon, skin glowing with her enhancement tattoo seals. Though Ryuji couldn’t see him, Matsui was also up there somewhere, fighting at mid-range with throwing knives that were smoothly ducked or deflected. He couldn’t even put his aria skills to use, since he had no idea where he would even begin to find its death verse. He didn’t even know what it _was._   

Whatever King of Hell the humanoid demon was under, it hadn’t shown its hand at all yet, matching Ryuji’s squadmates blow for blow through brawn and a vibrant red sword bag alone. The fact that it hadn’t felt the need to free the sealed demon as an ally was almost as concerning as the fact that it was keeping up at all. The demon’s actions revealed a sense of confidence that was deeply concerning. It felt like they were being played with, like it was only biding its time until the wards they’d set weakened.

Ryuji checked his watch, remembering what he’d been told about the rune array surrounding the area. They only had until sunrise to take this demon down. It wasn’t long.

Spurred on by his rising sense of urgency, he made his way over to where Arata was reloading, seeing as he was the only other person down on the ground. Arata didn’t even spare him a glance.

“Do we have a plan?” he asked, trying not to sound as unsure as he felt.

“Maybe,” Arata said, frowning at the battle overhead. He fired again, somehow keeping track of the rapidfire movements up in the poorly-lit rafters. “He wasn’t supposed to get to the jar before us. We underestimated him, and we’re down a bargaining chip for it. Plan A failed before it started.”

What would they even be bargaining for? “I’m hoping we have a plan B?”

Arata hummed low in the back of his throat. “Maybe. We’ll find a gap in that defense somewhere.”

A moment later, Arata used his free hand to shove Ryuji by the shoulder, hard. He grunted in surprise, stumbling a step to the left, and paused at the sound of metal scraped against the cement floor. He quickly located the source: one of Matsui’s deflected throwing knives had landed just past where he’d formerly been standing. He looked up, and found the demon was looking down at him, its hood obscuring all except its bioluminescent blue eyes. He shivered.

Aoki took advantage of its strange pause to press her advantage, and it dragged its gaze away to block a kick and hop back a rafter. After a moment of trying and failing to register what the hell had just happened, he looked back to Arata and nodded in thanks for the save. Arata paid him no mind, eyeing the demon’s figure speculatively.

With barely a pause, he lifted his gun and fired a single shot, and Ryuji could just barely make out the demon lashing a foot out to trip Aoki, who crouched and slid back to prevent losing balance. It snarled as it was forced back by a barrage of knives, the first distinct sound of anger it had made so far. Ryuji hoped that meant they were winning, and not just irritating it.

“Well, there’s a plan B for you.”

Before Ryuji could ask what the hell that even meant, Arata fired three more shots, in rapid succession. There was a muffled grunt of pain almost immediately, but from Aoki, rather than the demon. It had drop kicked her right off the rafters seemingly just as Arata fired. She handled the fall easily, landing in a roll not too far away from them and promptly popping back up to her feet.

In the next second there was another furious inhuman sound, and Ryuji jolted as, for the first time in the fight, the demon pursued the fight instead of hanging back and waiting on the next volley of attacks. It hurtled down from the rafters like a shooting star, trailed by its oversized cloak, and was in front of them in a heartbeat.

Arata couldn't even move to aim his gun properly before it was wrenched out of his hands. Aoki called out, but without a second to spare, the demon drove his fist into Arata's jaw. Ryuji froze, eyes locked on the demon only an arm’s length away. He remembered very abruptly the lectures on demonic strength and how many taming accidents there had been because of human frailty alone, and could almost hear the snap of a broken neck.

However, when Arata hit the ground his eyes weren’t blank and his bones seemed unbroken, pale skin only sporting the beginnings of a truly nasty bruise as he skidded back with an almost comical look of surprise on his face. It very abruptly wasn't comical anymore when the hood of the cloaked figure swung in his direction, eyes glowing. Terror chilled him to the bone.

He got his bazooka halfway to his shoulder before it was suddenly very much in his space, wrenching the heavy weapon from his stiff fingers like it was made of foam. Ryuji locked eyes with the demon, staring right into slitted pupils, inches away. He tried to form the words of a protective sutra, his lips shaping the vowels soundlessly, and cursed himself for the icy fear in his veins, slowing down his every thought. The sharp snarl straining the demon’s face seemed to ease after a moment, and it placed a palm on Ryuji’s chest and shoved.

The force behind it made him topple despite his height advantage, but he remarkably didn’t get propelled through any walls as he had half-expected, making it two golden opportunities for murder that the demon had passed up on. Ryuji tried to scramble back on his hands and legs, but it seemed that it was satisfied with knocking them over like pins, as it turned away from him and engaged in a quick exchange of blows with Aoki. It broke up the fight by feinting towards her legs and then using its spare hand to shove her like he had with Ryuji, but considerably harder, driving her back along the cement floor.

Without wasting a moment, it bounded towards the double doors of the warehouse, and Ryuji caught the first streaks of dawn, visible in the horizon through the small windows. He’d failed.

A hand gripped him by the arm, and he turned to see Arata had regained his feet and was now helping him up. His half hearted mutter of thanks caught in his throat, interrupted by the distinct click of a safety going off only an inch from his ear. Ahead of him, the demon skidded to a stop at the sound, twisting around with tension in every movement, ready to dodge.

Those eerie eyes met his, and its pupils shrunk, freezing in place. Ryuji turned his head to the side and could feel cold metal bump against his temple. He blinked. Hah?

“I’m right, aren’t I?” Arata said from behind him, voice smug. “You’ve got some kind of bind that’ll activate if you’re responsible for loss of human life, don’t you? A summoner condition? Someone slap a seal on you the last time you came thieving?”

“Uh, what?” the demon asked, voice surprisingly young. It sounded genuinely puzzled, which put it pretty close to Ryuji’s current state of mind, minus all the terror. Somewhere behind them, Aoki shifted.

“Now, don’t play coy. If I shoot Suguro-kun here,” he gestured slightly with the gun, making Ryuji flinch, “I’m guessing something bad will happen to you. Maybe bad enough that you won’t be able to slip through our fingers again.”

Haaaaaaah?

  
  


Ryuji’s expression must have been a sight to see, since the demon stared at him and then Arata with wide eyes. Was he really about to get killed for the capture of a demon who was an idiot, to boot?

“You-- can’t kill him? He’s your _teammate,_ what the hell are you--”

The demon’s voice cut off sharply as Arata pressed the gun more solidly against the side of Ryuji’s head. “He’s an exwire out on his first high-risk mission. Accidents happen all the time in the field, and you’ve been plaguing True Cross for far too long. Even if the higher ups found out about it, it would be deemed an acceptable sacrifice for the capture of a high-level humanoid demon like you. I’d be let off with a slap on the wrist.”

Ryuji felt like he was having an out-of-body experience, heartbeat deafening in his ears. They were trying to blackmail the demon by threatening the life of an exorcist? Even if it had some kind of bind put on it, the options Arata was offering both ended with it getting the sharp side of the stick. There was no way in hell a demon would let an exorcist live if it was going to get captured regardless. He stared ahead, wide eyed.

Still, the demon hadn’t moved from its position, to attack or flee. The bulky red swordbag he had been using as a weapon drooped, brushing the floor as it seemed to be caught in a moment of hesitation. Ryuji found himself kind of pissed about it. What was there to be indecisive about? Was the demon _that_ slow on the uptake?

It inhaled sharply, brow furrowing with a confusing sort of anger, but before it could get a syllable out, something impacted it in the back. It yelped in pain, scrabbling for what had hit it. When it retrieved the object, Ryuji joined it in staring uncomprehendingly at the elongated dart.

Oh right, Matsui was still up in the rafters. He _had_ mentioned something about paralytic agents tailored to demons.

The cloaked figure took a step back, swayed unsteadily, and mumbled, "Oh, son of a--!" before collapsing in a boneless heap. Arata clicked the safety back on and stepped away, removing the barrel from his head. Ryuji exhaled loudly and nearly fell over, relief swamping him for a moment. Not being dead was always nice. Almost immediately after his second of reprieve, he turned to Arata and Matsui, who were inspecting the fallen cloak-covered lump.

“ _That_ was plan B? What were you going to do if it attacked?” he demanded, bristling.

Arata offered him a placating smile. “Go back on the defensive. It was all a bluff, naturally. I wasn’t sure it would work long enough for Matsui to circle around, but everything turned out fine, hm?”

As someone who’d taken the gun safety course required by True Cross, he was fairly sure everything wouldn’t have turned out fine if Arata had made even a slight mistake. That gun had been _loaded._

Ryuji frowned, unsatisfied, and opened his mouth to pursue the issue, but was cut off by Matsui throwing an object at his face. He coughed in surprise and caught it, and then almost dropped it upon seeing it was the sealed demon the other demon had been trying to steal in the first place. The design of the wooden container indicated a Cat Sidhe, and it was still firmly sealed and closed.

Aoki appeared by his side, having collected all their varying discarded weapons. She handed him his bazooka and nodded wordlessly, and then walked past to pick up the demon and sling it over one shoulder like a particularly troublesome sack of potatoes. She started for the truck they had arrived in, and her two teammates were only a step behind. Ryuji followed reluctantly, still somewhat disoriented by the entire experience. Was this how all professional exorcists operated?

When they got to the car, Arata opened the back doors of the containment unit and cut his finger on a small blade. He dropped a bit of blood on a seal carved into the back of the truck, concentrating from a moment before pulling what looked like a person-sized ornate metal birdcage, heavily engraved with seals and plastered with paper wards, from the storage hammerspace. Ryuji was willing to bet money that the headmaster was behind that. Aoki silently hooked the cage to the roof of the unit and deposited the demon inside, handing the sword to Ryuji before heading for the driver’s seat.

Ryuji made to follow, juggling the sword and the sealed demon with mild irritation, but was stopped by an arm to the chest, courtesy of Arata. He looked up, frowning deeper.

"Suguro-kun, I’m afraid we need someone in the containment unit to monitor the demon. The other two and I have classified mission details to discuss, so we have voted you into the position via majority rule! Don't worry, the tranquilizer is sure to keep it down and out for the entire trip back, so you'll be fine, it’ll be completely boring even, come on now, come on."

Ryuji found himself subtly bullied into the second carriage, which held one row of seats. Facing the metal cage. Wonderful. He settled himself, sword on his lap, as the car doors shut and the engine started up front, leaving Ryuji with alone with a demon, only connected to the other exorcists through a small intercom he could turn on.  

He tried not to stare, but the hood of the cloak had fallen off and left the demon's face exposed, and it certainly wasn’t what he’d envisioned. It was shockingly human like this, only the slightly sharp ears giving any sign that it wasn't what it seemed. The dark hair and lack of protruding fangs made him seem like just another person, a teen that could be around Ryuji's age.

Although, demons this powerful were generally ages old despite their appearances. Ryuji leaned back into his seat, uncomfortable again. He stared out the window, pointedly ignoring the demon. As the vehicle started to move, he found himself regretting getting involved with the mission at all.

\---

Rin woke slowly, groggy and feeling like he was forgetting something important. A small part of his mind was gargling frantically at him, but most of him was just really sleepy. He rolled over and yawned widely, already drowsy once more.

“Holy shit,” someone whispered very faintly.

Rin's teeth clacked painfully as he jolted mid-yawn, finally opening his eyes properly. His side hurt, and he was still draped in his cloak, in a cage on a moving vehicle. The last few hours caught up with him like a freight train, making him bolt upright. He immediately got tangled in his own cloak, and struggled with it for a minute before accidentally slamming his back against the metal bars.

They must have been warded or something, because he immediately felt like that one time he’d been tasered and jerked away with a hiss as the cage, which was apparently hung from the ceiling of the vehicle, swung slightly. The movement unbalanced him, and he careened into another bar, repeating the process. After a few moments of disoriented slamming into shit, he gave up and just lay flat on the bottom of the cage in a heap again, waiting for it to settle. He resisted the urge to groan. This was The Worst.   


After a moment of silence, Rin jolted at the sound of panicked breathing. He had forgotten that someone else was in here in the chaos of being clumsy and also super drugged he was pretty sure. Whatever that needle-dart thing had on it, it was some nasty stuff. If he wasn't half human it wasn't likely he'd be lucid at all. As it was, his whole brain was screaming at him and making him even more super distracted by everything than usual. He’d been going somewhere with this. Why was he not napping again?

Oh right, the other person.

Slower this time, he propped himself up with his arms, which were worryingly shaky, and sat back on his rear, his surroundings staying mostly still. The back wall of what looked like the inside of a specialized moving truck was now visible as he opened his eyes, so... that meant the other person was behind him? He tilted his head back, using his arms as supports so he didn't just fall flat on his back.

He got an upside-down view of the exorcist kid from before, the one on watch with the other three that had pursued him and then gotten him into this mess. He looked really alarmed, but still pretty cool with the hair and the piercings and stuff. He has Kurikara clutched in his hands. Rin brightened, happy to see a silver lining on this storm cloud of a day.

  
"Hey, you're not dead!" Rin said, excitedly.  

The guy paused in trying to subtly shift seats for whatever reason. “No?”

“Good! Cause like, dying by your own team just because they're bastards...? That would be so lame, way too lame for someone cool with piercings 'n cool hair ‘n stuff. I guess they were bluffing after all. That four-eyes always was saying how gullible I am. Ughhhh. An' now I'm in a cage and going... somewhere _probably_ not good... and this drug stuff is awful, what the hell even _is_ this stuff?"   


"Something you're definitely not supposed to be recovering from right now... ‘Down and out’ my ass..." The teen grumbled under his breath, voice wavering slightly. Rin realized he was gripping the bag with Kurikara in it with white knuckles, and then remembered, oh yeah, he was a big scary demon. Pfft.

But still, the guy was probably scared alone in here with him. He didn't know any better, and it would be perfectly sensible behavior with, say, Amaimon, so Rin didn't mind as much as he might have. He shifted himself so that he could face Rooster-hair properly.

  
"So what's your name? I'm Rin!"

Rooster-hair paused for a long moment, looking between Rin and… some kind of walkie-talkie thing on the wall? He seemed to make a decision, face hardening as he leaned forwards ever so slightly.

“Suguro. What kind of a demon are you?” he asked, eyes intent. Probably thought Rin was trying to play mind games or something. Again, would be a valid tactic with someone like that Mephisto bastard, so it didn’t bother Rin too much. He was the cool and fun outlier when it came to satan spawn.

“Uhhh. Hm.” That was a good question. “Not sure! Don’t know the names of all your classifications or all that.” Yukio would probably know, that smart bastard. “What’s, uh… what d’you like to do?”

Suguro narrowed his eyes at him. “...I like to go running. Whose body is that?”

“Oh, cool! I like to cook!” Rin beamed at him for a moment, before registering his question. “Uhh, mine?”

Suguro snorted dismissively. “I mean before you possessed it. Do you even know?”

“No, like, I… didn’t steal it?” Rin suddenly remembered that he was super not supposed to tell people about the half-human thing, lest Mephisto track them down and send more exorcists after them. That Angel guy had been _so hard_ to shake. “I mean, he like, gave it to me. Just fer a little bit. Borrowing.” A pause. “Uh, he says he thinks your hair is cool too.”

Suguro leaned back. “He’s still awake?”

“Y. Yes?” Maybe this had been a bad idea. His improv skills hadn’t improved at all, particularly not while drugs were still stuck in his system. Where was that damn healing factor when he needed it? “Uh. He’s like, sharing. S’all good.”   

He struggled to change the subject. “Uh, is your teammate okay? The one with the ponytail.”

Suguro blinked, thrown off-balance. “She’s-- fine. Why?”

“Oh, good. I thought one ‘a the bullets the asshole was shootin’ at her might’ve grazed her, but I wasn’t sure.”

Suguro frowned at him. “He was shooting at you.”

Rin frowned right back. “Nuh-uh. He shot at her like, three whole times. Hadda kick her so she didn’t get hit. Guy’s a bastard.” When Suguro continued to look doubtful, he elaborated. “Kept trying to hit his teammates once he realized I was trying to avoid any of ‘em getting hurt too bad. ‘S why he threatened you, I’m pretty sure.”

“Why would you care? You’re a demon.” Suguro asked, looking angry confused. Angrused. Confangry. Heh.

“Yeah but I didn’t wanna kill anybody. You’re like, my- my uh, body’s age, why would I--” He choked off the end of the sentence with a groan as a bolt of pain ran through him. His body felt less numb around the edges, but now his nerves felt like burning. He bit his tongue to distract himself, leaning over to press his head against the cold metal floor. “I just wanted to get the little… cat. No plans to kill nobody.”

There was an odd beep, and then a crackly new voice spoke from the wall. “Suguro-kun, you alright back there? No changes?”

Rin raised his head and looked from it to Suguro with wide eyes, feeling alarm prickle down his spine. He was just waiting for his head to settle so that he could break out without his flames going wild, but if Suguro told them he was awake and they dosed him with that drug again… It could be bad.

Suguro watched him with an odd look for a long second, and then leaned over to the intercom without breaking eye contact.

“No changes. You always stick the exwires with the boring jobs?”

A laugh rattled over the static. “Only you, Suguro-kun! Stay sharp!”

“Yes, sir.” Suguro released the button, keeping his sharp gaze locked on Rin.

There was a long moment of silence. “You…,” Rin started, slowly. Suguro leaned forwards, eyes narrowed.

“You’re a good guy after all!” Rin told him with a grin, pointing for emphasis. “You act all tough, but you’re totally nice!”

Suguro seemed to splutter, lost for words. “I-- you-- what even--”

“What’s your favorite food? I’ll make it for you next time I see you!” It was completely possible that he would never see the exwire after this, and even more possible that it would be under bad circumstances, but it never hurt to hope he could cook for more people in the future.

“Next time you… Hold on, you know we’re taking you to True Cross, right? You’re going to like… jail. Maybe execution.” Suguro’s tone seemed more like a bewildered warning than a threat. Rin beamed at him.

“Nah, don’t worry! I’ll be fine.” He snickered at Suguro’s deeply unimpressed look. “No, really! Hold on.”  

He lifted up his cloak to block the exwire’s view for a moment, and willed a little flicker of flame along his hands. It took a second, and it was messier than he envisioned, but it didn’t go out of control, and that was good enough for him. He looked back up with a sly grin. “I’m staging a breakout.”

“What--?”

“Don’t freak out, okay? I’d be happy if you kept this a secret, ‘cause otherwise I’m gonna have to avoid so many more exorcists and it’s gonna _suck.”_

With that, Rin let the fear and anger that had been bubbling in the back of his mind all along rise to the surface, and blue flames sprung into existence, covering him like a shroud. Suguro pressed back, the color draining from his face, as Rin gripped the bars of the cage. He ignored the sting of wards shattering and channeled heat to his hands until he could bend them enough to slip through. He beat Suguro to the intercom, slapping a flame-covered hand over it and promptly burning right through it.

“Sorry, but I gotta get going. Can I have my sword back?”

Suguro looked like he would sooner take the Kurikara and start using it to cave Rin’s skull in than hand it over. He shifted his weight, awkward. He couldn’t like, knock him out or anything, since head injuries were nothing to scoff at and he didn’t know how far they were from the closest hospital.

He decided to go for his ‘method of surprise’ tactic, willing more flames into existence around him and moving forwards into even closer quarters. It was a serious drain, without Kurikara drawn, but he only needed to do it long enough to surprise Suguro.

Sure enough, the exwire flung his hands up defensively, eyes closed and bracing himself for the pain of Rin’s ‘attack’. Moving quick, Rin managed to swipe the sword _and_ the sealed Cait Sidhe from his side in the time it took him to realize that he wasn’t being burned by the flames flickering against his skin.

“Thanks, Suguro! If you ever need an odd job done, give me a call!”

He waved goodbye to Suguro’s slack expression, and then maneuvered around the cage to kick the back doors open. A mountain road sped past, and he wasted no time in tucking and rolling, ignoring the already-healing scrapes to jump to his feet and start sprinting. He had to get back to camp and tell Yukio they were moving again, and he hoped he was back to normal by the time he got there. His little brother was going to be _pissed._

\---

Sitting stunned in the back of the truck, Ryuji didn’t notice the handmade business card tucked into his shirt pocket until after he’d reported in and safely gotten back to the dorms.

_Okumura Brothers_

_Mercenaries for Hire_

_:^)_

 

Ryuji blinked, slowly. Had an uber-powerful rogue demon just given him its _summoning circle?_

  
  
  
  



	2. Summoning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How To Make Friends: By Rin Okumura
> 
> Step One: Give them your number (summoning circle).
> 
> Step Two: ?? ?? ? ?? demons?? ???? 
> 
> Step Three: Profit.

Hours after the return trip home, Ryuji stood in front of the headmaster’s desk, glad to be away from the three professional exorcists and their hostage schemes. He just had to wait for Mephisto Pheles to finish looking over the report and then he could go get some long-awaited sleep. He had exhausted himself thinking about the encounter with Rin all the way back.

 

Mephisto looked up from the report, and Ryuji waited to be dismissed.

 

“Suguro-kun, I don’t suppose there was anything else that caught your attention? Something that you may have failed to mention to your teammates in all the confusion?”

 

Ryuji stiffened, breaking out into a cold sweat. He scrutinized the man, but there was no tells in his ever-present, infuriating smile. The man sometimes reminded him of Shima, with how lax he was even in times of tension. He… probably already knew. Either way, he wasn’t going to keep a secret for a guy he’d known like, an hour, and was _also maybe Actually Satan._ He sighed.

 

“Yeah, actually. The flames he used to break out were blue. Like, _Satan_ blue.”

 

Mephisto had the gall to put on an expression of mock-surprise. “Oh, dear me! Looks like Arata-san was right about where our bandit would strike next!”

 

“Bandit?” Ryuji echoed.

 

Mephisto nodded, forlorn. “For the past few months, the True Cross Academy has had a little thief come and snatch sealed demons right up from under our noses. My poor warehouses, ransacked! I’ve already tried leaving convincing replicas, but we knew this thief must have some sort of demonic heritage, because he never fell for an empty vessel. So, clearly the solution was to send some of my cleverest exorcists to go handle it!”

 

Ryuji stared. “You sent me. An _exwire_ . On a mission to catch a demon thief. Who was _Satan.”_

 

“Of course not, of course not!” Mephisto flapped a hand at him dismissively, and for a moment Ryuji thought that maybe he would try to explain it all away as perfectly safe.

 

“I simply sent you on a mission to catch Satan’s _son,_ Suguro-kun. There’s a big difference.”

 

Ryuji made an inhuman sound of frustration, beyond caring about appearances at this point. “Satan’s _son? Which one???”_ Wasn’t Satan the only one with those flames? What kind of demon lore was he missing out on? _Where were the books about this._

 

“Now, now, I had the fullest confidences in you,” Mephisto answered, completely ignoring his question. “Everything turned out fine, and now I have ascertained the thief’s identity. Thank you for your report, Suguro-kun.”

 

He sat there, thoroughly pissed, for a long moment, but the dismissal was clear as day and Mephisto clearly wasn’t going to be pushed any further. He stood and moved to leave.

 

“Oh, and remember!” Mephisto chirped. “This is all classified!”

 

He stalked out of the room without responding, expression thunderous.

 

When he finally returned to his shared dorm, he had calmed himself down a bit, but Konekomaru’s sense for when he was agitated was as strong as ever, and the smaller teen almost immediately looked up from his desk with concern. “Bon? Are you okay?”

 

Shima poked his head out from the bottom bunk. “Bon’s back?”

 

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he answered, stepping out of his shoes. “Mission was just… a mess, s’all.”

 

“You’re not hurt?” Koneko asked, and Ryuji shook his head. “Can you tell us about it?”

 

He dragged a hand down his face. “Nah. It’s classified shit.” At Koneko’s continued concern, he waved a placating hand. “I’m _fine._ Honestly, I just want to get to bed.”

 

He turned to his bunk and started changing into his pajamas, pausing only when something fluttered out of his shirt pocket as he tugged it over his head. He squatted to pick it up, and then spent a good five minutes crouched there, rereading the message on the tiny card.

 

The guy had put a smiley face on the damn thing. What kind of satan spawn _was_ he? Didn’t he know that if Ryuji gave this to True Cross and they summoned him, they’d be able to ambush him easily?

 

He shook his head, and shoved the slip into his bag for cram class. Whatever. Whether it was genuine or not, he supposed he could keep one secret for the guy. He’d sort-of maybe saved him from getting shot execution-style, after all.

It didn’t matter. It wasn’t like he’d ever use it.

 

\---

 

“Oh, Bon, what about this?”

 

“ _Absolutely not._ ”

 

Ryuji snatched the small card out of Shima’s hand, struggling to keep his footing in the harsh winds. Next to them, Kamiki caught the movement and stared at him.

 

“Was that a _summoning circle?”_ she yelled, hands clapped over her ears to block out the howling of the demon all around them. The three of them were tucked against a small enclave in the snowy forest area, desperately trying to avoid the deadly hail and the cutting winds emanating from the demon as it tracked them.

 

“Yes,” Shima answered over Ryuji’s vehement _no._ He shot Shima a death glare, and he shrugged in a ‘well she _asked’_ sort of fashion. Kamiki made a ‘give it to me’ gesture, furious.

 

“Why has it taken you this long to pull it out?! What were you waiting for, an even more deadly demon to come join the party?” she yelled, vicious even in these circumstances.

 

Ryuji pulled his hand back, pressing the circle tightly to his shirt. “No, you don’t get it! I’m not even sure if it’ll work, it’s--”

 

Kamiki made a motion like she wanted to strangle him but wasn’t close enough. “This is _NOT_ the time for holding back on possible trump cards, dumbass!”

 

“It’s for one of Satan’s sons!” Ryuji admitted, figuring that if they all were about to die, protocol probably didn’t matter too much. “I don’t even know if I can control him, he could kill us all--”

 

“Then we’ll die three minutes earlier than we’re already about to!” Kamiki yelled back, apparently beyond being surprised. “You’re going to defeat Satan, right? How the hell do you expect to do that if you can’t even handle one of his kids?”

 

She looked away, seemingly embarrassed by her implication that she did believe in his goal, but her words were genuine. Ryuji nodded firmly, steeling his resolve. “You’re right!”

 

He closed his eyes, saying a silent prayer, and then sliced his thumb on the paper, smearing blood over the circle design.

 

For a moment, nothing happened, and he thought that the demon had pulled the world’s worst timed prank on him, and then--

 

And then Rin popped into existence with a flare of blue light, wearing an apron and holding a tray of what looked to be freshly-baked cookies. He smelled like granny spices, Ryuji noted with mild hysteria.

 

“Woah!” Rin said, presumably at the sudden change in perspective. He turned to look at Ryuji.

 

“Suguro! You used the summoning circle!” His tail waved behind him, like a pleased cat’s.

 

Ryuji stared at him, lost for words. Rin stared back, grin fading.

 

“Um... D’ya want a cookie?”

 

In the distance, the demon at the source of the current maelstrom roared. Kamiki groaned, trying to match it for volume.

 

“Actually. I was hoping to maybe not die,” Suguro replied, wondering suddenly how this was his life.

 

" _This_ is the demon you were worried about summoning?" Kamiki moans. "A boy? Who _bakes?_ We're doomed. We're absolutely going to die."   
  
"Hey, I don’t just bake! I can whip up a mean curry too!” Rin said, offended. Kamiki buried her face in her hands, muttering ‘curry’ under her breath. “I _also_ happen to be good at not dying, most of the time."   
  
"Maybe you could," Suguro said carefully, "lend us, your. Expertise."   
  
"Sure," Rin agreed, chipper. "I’m not really an expert in anything, though. Are you sure you don’t want a cookie?"

 

Ryuji nodded, faintly. Rin shrugged and set the tray of cookies down on a nearby boulder. He very carefully removed his oven mitts, which appeared to be designed to look like sharks with open mouths, and then his apron, which had elaborate frills and seemed to read “KEEP CALM grandma’s in the kitchen!” in english. He delicately folded it and placed it under the oven mitts.

 

He glanced over his shoulder at the three of them, his shoulders rising up defensively at the sight of them watching him. “What? Those were gifts!”

 

Shima, the only person who seemed to have any presence of mind at all at the moment, gave him a thumbs up, which appeared to cheer him immensely.

 

“Alright!” he said, pulling the familiar red swordbag from his back. He let the cover slip off, revealing a sword that was also oddly familiar. “Let’s do this!”

 

Without any further fanfare, he drew the sword, _lit himself on fire_ , and started sprinting towards the demon through the cutting wind. As he ran, the whirling air seemed to impossibly catch aflame, shifting the spiraling near-typhoon into a whirlpool of blue fire. There was more roaring from the storm demon, this time angrier-sounding.

 

“Hahah, holy shit,” said Shima.

 

“Was that the fucking Kurikara?” Ryuji asked no one in particular.

 

Kamiki stared at the terrifying mass of blue flame for a long moment, and then turned to the metal baking sheet of cookies and pried one off. She bit into it with a furious crunch.

 

There was a death rattle in the distance.

 

“Chocolate chip,” she informed them, grimly.

 

The son of Satan baked chocolate chip cookies.

 

“It’s good.”

 

The son of Satan baked _good_ chocolate chip cookies. Ryuji watched the guy in question remove one of the storm demon’s many arms, yelling something indistinct. There was still blue fire everywhere.

 

“This is a nightmare,” Ryuji decided.

 

Next to him, Shima shoved the last of a cookie into his mouth. “A tasty nightmare, at least.”

 

He reached for another one, and Ryuji slapped his hand away with probably excess force. Shima yelped, and there was a clatter as the force of his smack ended up hitting the edge of the baking tray and flipping it over entirely, dumping all the cookies into the snow.

 

They all froze for a long moment.

 

“If he kills us for that,” Kamiki started, deceptively calm, “I’m going to come back to life just to exorcise your spirits.”    

 

Before they could respond, there was another agonized roar, and they turned just in time to see Rin get swatted like a fly, crashing into the accumulated snow. The demon howled, but Rin had done some serious damage already, what with all the deadly fire. A few seconds later, it toppled over, and the winds finally died down completely.

 

Ryuji is the first to come out from the meager shelter of the enclave, scanning the snow for Rin. It was easy to spot him, or rather where he’d landed, because the snow was billowing up into huge clouds of steam as the fire faded away. He warily trekked closer, waiting for the steam to fade, and then inhaled sharply at the sight of blood splattered heavily across the remaining nearby snow. Rin was still, laying limply on his back.

 

“Oh my god,” Shima said from over Ryuji’s shoulder, “is he dead?”

 

Rin suddenly jolted upright into a sitting position with a growl, making all of them jump. He looked around for a long moment, oddly disoriented, but his gaze seemed to clear up once he saw them.

 

“I’m good!” he yelled, and then immediately coughed up a mouthful of blood.

 

“Idiot!” Ryuji shouted back, already tugging his jacket off to try and stem the bleeding, despite the fact that it was likely internal. As much as he was glad Moriyama and Konekomaru hadn’t gotten caught up in this mess, he desperately wanted their healing abilities and clear headed strategy right about now.

 

Rin tilted his head at him, chin covered in blood. He waved the jacket away. “Woah, easy. I just said I’m good.”

 

Ryuji pushed the jacket at him more forcefully, voice flat. “You look like there’s more blood outside of you than inside.”

 

“Ok, yeah, but--” he pulled the remains of his blood-soaked shirt up, and Ryuji recoiled automatically, expecting organs and gore. Instead, however, there was just a deep scratch across his torso that was growing shallower as he watched. He let his shoulders sag, oddly relieved.

 

Rin gives him a toothy grin. “Benefits of having demon blood. Not much keeps me down for long!” It turned into a grimace as he coughed again. “Still hurts like hell, though.”

 

That was…. Well, that was basically terrifying on all sorts of levels, but Rin had been nothing but friendly and a little awkward, and he’d definitely just took a mortal blow while saving their lives, so…

 

“Thank you,” Ryuji said, resisting the urge to bow his head. No matter how nice Rin seemed, it was always a bad idea to get too lenient with a demon under contract. According to True Cross, anyways.

 

Since he hadn’t bowed his head, he got a real-time view of Rin, apparent son of Satan, flushing red as a tomato and looking away sheepishly. He moved a hand to rub at the back of his neck, avoiding eye contact. “Of course! Hahah, uh, anytime!” He seemed inordinately pleased by the simple gesture.

 

Before Ryuji could think too much on it, Rin looked past him and perked up. “Oh, hey!”

 

He turned to look over his shoulder and saw Kamiki standing nearby, with Shima trying to hide rather ineffectively behind her. She muttered something cutting to him, and elbowed him away, moving to approach. “Gonna introduce us to the scary demon?” she asked, and Ryuji glared at her.

 

“I’m not a scary demon,” the demon in question interrupted sourly, before introducing himself to the two of them. Kamiki scoffed.

 

“Sorry, you _were_ the one that just got summoned to destroy a legendary tempest demon and did it in under fifteen minutes, right?”

 

“Well…”

 

As the only one close enough to see, Ryuji noticed that his odd, tuft-ended tail had halted in its movements, suddenly drooping sadly. He looked between it and Rin’s friendly, slightly-strained grin, disbelieving of the obvious tell. Was this guy really a demon?

 

“Anyways… Ah, shit, I gotta get home! My brother’s gonna lose his mind if I accidentally burn down another kitchen.”

 

“Burn down? _Another?”_ Ryuji took back the doubt about him being a demon.

 

“I leave the oven on during a very intense basting process _once_ and suddenly I’m ‘untrustworthy in the kitchen’ and ‘a menace’,” he complained, making elaborate finger quote gestures. “Me! Untrustworthy in the kitchen! Can you imagine?”

 

Very easily. “No. Not at all.”

 

Rin nodded, smug. “ _Exactly._ I’m a beacon of kitchen safety! I… did leave the oven on when you summoned me, though, so. I should probably get back to that.”

 

There’s a long moment of silence, and then Ryuji realizes that everyone is looking at him. More specifically, at the bloody business card still clenched in his hand. Oh yeah.

 

“If you tear it, I’ll pop back where I was so I can turn the oven off! Otherwise I’d have to get back normally and that… would take too long, I think.”

 

Ryuji looked at the card. “I have a lot of questions, though.”

 

Rin wilted. “But, the oven…. My kitchen reputation…”

 

“Can’t you just give him another circle and talk later?” Kamiki asked, raising an eyebrow at their antics. Rin patted his shredded shirt and the pockets of what Ryuji now realized were pajama pants with tiny cats on them.

 

“Uh… no. I don’t have any on me, but…”

 

Rin hopped to his feet in a move that made Ryuji automatically wince for the wound that probably wasn’t even there anymore, and scooped his sword up from the ground. Ryuji stood as well, and then nearly stumbled back as Rin cracked the sword open, revealing the change he hadn’t registered the first time around.

 

Where Rin normally looked fairly human (apart from the tail), the sword’s fire seemed to transform him, lengthening his ears and his fangs, and giving him two small horns of blue flame. It was alarming, but Rin was looking at him expectantly, as though waiting for him to finish taking in the changes. He raised a hand questioningly, and when Ryuji didn’t shy away, grinned and tapped a finger on Ryuji’s forehead.

 

“What’re you trying to do?” Ryuji asked, frowning. Rin didn’t answer, tongue poking out as he concentrated on… something.

 

“The sylphs showed me how to do it, I know I can…,” his muttering trailed off as a strange pressure formed where he was touching, and then popped with a bell-like noise. “There!”

 

“There?” Ryuji echoed, rubbing at his head. He didn’t feel anything there…

 

“Now I can find you anywhere!” Rin told him, grinning proudly. “Problem solved!”

 

Ryuji broke out into a cold sweat. “I see.”

 

“Ok, ok, I really gotta get back! I’ll find you later and we can talk about stuff!”

 

He ripped the circle without any further prompting, and Rin’s farewell wave was interrupted by a puff of fire, teleporting him away. He put his head in his hands.

 

“What did I just get myself into?”

 

Behind him, Kamiki snorted, and Shima patted his back consolingly, done hiding like a coward. “Nothing good. Who the hell was that guy? What kind of kid of Satan does…,” she gestured vaguely, “All that?”

 

“I wish I knew.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dear god rin you absolute disaster.
> 
> CHAPTER 2!!! HOPE YOU ENJOYED! thank you so much to those who commented, particularly Mechanical_Maniacal and BiblioMatsuri, who both left long & detailed reviews of chapter one with their thoughts. Y'all really helped me crank this one out! I also appreciate everyone who pointed out my typos/errors, and I went through the whole chapter 1 and fixed a few errors there! 
> 
> BIGGEST thanks 2 the lovely simkjrs who was a huge help in me brainstorming this chapter and also gave it a look over for me once i finished <3 <3 <3 love u
> 
> If you enjoyed or have thoughts, please drop me a comment! I love to hear from fellow fans (^:

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading & more to come soon!!! please leave a review if you enjoyed or have thoughts!!! <3


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